Deme Does Crotch ... Watching

This weekend saw me take on tanking in a more concerted effort. On Friday night I realised I’d actually got a full tank set of gear. That was a bit of a shock! It means I’ve now got to enchant and gem the lot and get the stats sorted.

In an attempt to prevent other nooby tanks from making the same mistake I repeated on the weekend, here’s a little checklist to use before you start whacking anything.

Have I changed into tank gear?
Check 

Have I changed to Frost talents?
Check

Have I put on FROST presence?
No? Numpty.

I’d also add
- Chug a defence potion if you need it, which currently Deme does.

I got a great group to run me through my first HC as a tank, comprising of two droods, one a bear in off spec and one healing, another DK whose main spec is tank and A N Other. I’m sorry my dear guildie, I’ve forgotten, needless to say all these guys are well-geared and could romp through HCs in 15 minutes max. With this make up, we went for the random. Silent prayers for anything but the ICC 3 or HoS. FoS pops up. *eeek* goes my brain. Group tells me I’ll be fine. I mark up the first two mobs and off we go. Hmm, aggro isn’t great, but I hold them and they die. Then I remember. FROST presence. FFS. What a numpty.

I’ve watched one particular DK tank run HCs and unless the healer needs mana, he doesn’t stop. I wouldn’t say chain pulling per se, but certainly moving fast. I guess because I’ve seen him do this so often, it’s rubbed off on me. I’ve been spoilt too, the group I was running with know who to hit first so marking was a little pointless and I didn’t bother.

Gathering the groups up and holding aggro was fine. Crotch-watching is a suitable description of tanking and for my particular style, I like all the mobs in a group in a semi-circle in front of me. This means I DG those ranged casters in. Is that wrong? Erm, not sure, but it feels a lot more comfortable when I can see them all glaring at me and not have one off to the side.

We pass through a few mobs and get up to James Brown. I mean Bronjam. *phew* Take a deep breath. My first HC boss as a tank. Quick catch up with the group to make sure I understand what I have to do, turns out I do. Confidence rises a little. The encounter starts and all is well. Corrupted Soul goes up and I begin to move him, I honestly can’t say if he got the soul or not because I wasn’t watching his HP, I was too busy popping all my abilities to make sure he keep hitting me whilst I wandered round the outside of the room. The second phase, where we all give him a nice hug in the middle went off without a hitch. Hoorah!

I take a deep breath and pause to savour the moment.

Then we press on and get to the Devourer of Souls. Now, I'm sorry, but did Blizz get a bit camped up when they created the bosses in ICC? I mean this guy sounds like as camp as a row of tents, then there's Marrowgar's cry of "Boooone Stooooorrrrrm". I mean come on.

Anyway, Devourer of Souls. Yeah. Not gunna lie, I died. No idea how because it wasn't down to the healer. Let's not dwell on that though. We got through and I'd tanked it. Hoorah!

I finished off the weekend tanking 4 more HCs. My least favourite being Culling of Stratholme. As a nooby tank running backwards and forwards and running the undead gauntlet I found tough. I hit up ToC too, which isn't up my list of favourites, but hey we got through it. My two favourites to tank have been Azjol Nerub and Utgarde Keep. I love UK on normal to tank so I was chuffed when it popped up on the random. I also enjoy AN. Anooooob gets pwned. Me likely.

I guess now I've actually got the gear and had a bit of practice I'd better give you lot some kind of spec and stats post right? Ok, I'll do my best for the next post.

According to guildies I'll be tanking Naxx this weekend. pfft.